him.
“Go ahead,” he said, nodding to her, not willing to relinquish the baby currently in his arms.
She broke the seal of the letter and unfolded it before she began to read.
“Elijah, I hope you are well and you were able to find your way home. You were very kind to me when I was in such distress. You were so concerned for my story and the plight of my lost love, that I felt compelled to write to you and tell you the end of it.
Last year, on Christmas morning, I was alone, hardly even aware of what day it was, let alone in a mind to celebrate. You can imagine my utter astonishment when I saw someone limping down the walkway to my home.” Joanna stopped and looked up. “It is just like your story.”
“It is eerily similar,” he noted, as she continued.
“It was Eduardo. I was wild with shock, sure that I was just seeing things, that it could not actually be him. I ran out to him, caught him, helped him back into the house. I was the only one home, my father out. Oh, Elijah, how wonderful it was to see him again. He was the same man as he had been before, yet so different in the same breath. He had been injured, a bullet having gone through his shoulder and another through his leg, but he was home. He was otherwise healthy. And he still loved me. We were married three months later. I only hope that you have found the same happiness as I have. Farewell, Elijah.”
There were tears in Joanna’s eyes as she finished the letter.
“The true ending is much better than yours.”
“On that, you are correct,” he said with a laugh. “We shall have to update everyone on what has occurred.”
“They won’t be pleased you lied.”
He shrugged. “It returned your watch to you, did it not?”
“It did,” Joanna said with a small smile, just as the door opened.
“Elijah, you’re back!” Caroline explained. “Thatcher was just about to come look for you. He had hoped to finish early enough to join you.”
“There is much to be done, Caro,” Elijah said to his sister. “Come, have a seat.”
“I don’t suppose you will give up that baby to me to hold, will you?”
“Not yet,” he said, laughing lowly so as not to wake his son. “Besides, you have one of your own.”
Their arrangement had worked out perfectly thus far. Elijah had required a steward to help him with his estate. Thatcher had been caught in a strange situation of becoming family without the education to take on a profession that would be seen as respectable for a man with a noble wife.
Working with Elijah had been the solution for all of them, and Joanna had appreciated having Caroline nearby so they could raise their children together..
“Do you mind not going home this year for the entire Christmastide party?” Elijah asked Caroline just as Thatcher joined them.
“Not at all,” Caroline said, shaking her head. “Seeing the family for Christmas and Twelfth Night will be just perfect, don’t you think, Jo?”
“I absolutely do,” Joanna agreed with a smile. “This year I have no reason to avoid Briercrest.”
She laughed as she looked over at Elijah with a spark in her eyes, and he winked back at her.
“Now you can’t get rid of me.”
“Behave yourself, and I will never see reason to.”
As Elijah held the baby tightly in his arms, he had to blink back the tears that threatened — tears that all he had never thought possible had come to be. A family of his own, a wife who loved him, and a home to fill with memories for the rest of his life.
And just in case he forgot some of them… Joanna was there to remind him.
THE END
HER CHRISTMAS WISH
PREVIEW
Emily and Charles’ Christmas story
A sneak peek…
Lord and Lady Coningsby had outdone themselves once again.
Charles stood at the top of the stairs as he looked at the ballroom before him. He was announced — alone — though no one paid much attention. There were glances from some of the eligible young women and their mothers, of course, but most who would be invited tonight had already done their utmost to capture his attention.
While Charles appreciated the effort, he simply wasn’t interested. Soon enough, he would find someone suitable. He just hadn’t the energy at the moment.
“Doverton!” Lord Coningsby exclaimed as Charles reached the bottom of the stairs. “It’s good to see you again, old chap. It has